Thursday, August 25, 2011

July 17th, 2011

Hello!

How are you? I'm doing good. Thanks for another email! Hey guess what today is... It's my 20 month mark! o_O How the heck have I been on my mission for 20 months?!?!

I'm glad that you've had a good week. Yup we have been keeping busy lately. This last week was really busy too, but in a different way. We were out of our area for like half the week. Let me tell you all about it.

So last pday we didn't actually end up going to soccer golf. We all got way too competitive in ping pong and played for too long, and that threw off the schedule and we wouldn't have had time to go there. But oh well, we will just have to do it another day. I have to say, I am getting pretty good at ping pong. We were playing some more this morning.

Tuesday was one of the only days that we had to really work in our area. We had 4 appointments, but it was dumb because 2 of them canceled and 1 burned us. So the day didn't turn out like we were hoping. Then that evening we packed our stuff and hopped on a train to Frederica where we spent the night. We went there because the next day was zone conference.

So in the morning on Wednesday we woke up early and caught another train over to Copenhagen. It was an awesome meeting. At the end, they said that there was a surprise for us and president went out to get it. And then he came in with a hoodie on, acting all gangster. It was the funniest thing ever. Anyway, they got mission hoodies for all of us!! Isn't that cool? Also at the zone conference we found out about some way awesome news! On September 7th we are going to have a special guest for a zone conference... It's going to be Elder Bednar!! They said that it would pretty much be 3 hours of question and answer. Anyway, we are all way excited for that! How cool is that?!?

This was one of the coolest zone conferences ever because when we were done we went to the temple for a session. It was so cool! I'm glad that I was able to go there another time. It's a bummer that I'm not able to go to the temple very often as a missionary.

After that we had some dinner and then me and McCleary and 4 other missionaries went to the mission home to sleep. It was cool because we were able to just talk to president in a different situation and see more of his personality come out and really get to know him and his family better. Sister Andersen was also really nice and baked us some cake.

The next day we went to the Fredriksborg Castle as a zone. That was way cool. It's the one that I had been to one time before that has those paintings by Carl Bloch. It was fun being there with so many other missionaries.

Well that was the end of our big road trip. After the castle we has some lunch and then headed back home. It was a fun trip. We were only home for one day, Friday, and then we were off again. On Saturday we went to Randers because there was a baptism. It was a guy named Søren that Elder McCleary had taught. He is a way old, tiny man. Elder Oakey who baptized him was so scared about how he was going to dunk him in the water and get him up again without killing him. Haha, but it went well.

And someone else got baptized on Saturday! Malene Christophersen!!! Jeniffer's Mom! I was really bummed that I couldn't get permission to go to it. Especially since they wanted me to help them out with a musical number. But I was told that it went really well, and that they were so happy.

Then we ended the week with a good day at church. David, the organist wasn't there, so I played. There was a family of like 9 Germans that showed up, so both me and McCleary had to translate.

So anyway it was an excellent week. A lot of good stuff happened.

Tomorrow we will go work on our project at Inge's, and hopefully we will be able to finish it. It is really close, and there really isn't too much left to do.

I think that Ausra will continue to progress. The mission office is working on finding the missionaries that will be responsible for her and then we will get that info to her. So she was in Denmark for studies, and now she is done with that and decided to go back home. Wanna hear something cool? So this week and next week she is in Bornholm on vacation where she used to live and 2 days ago she ran into the missionaries there! She talked with them and asked if they know me and McCleary. They said yeah and talked with her and invited her to a church activity they are having this week and she is gonna come. Elder Nørgaard on Bornholm called me and told that story.

I know! I still can't believe how soon I'm coming home! I'm glad you are excited. Haha. I haven't received any papers or anything about it. I don't know why they send it to you but not us. I know for sure that Elder Shreeve will be on the same flight as me. He has a layover in Salt Lake for a couple hours before he flies the rest the way to Arizona. And Van Nevel travels the same day but he lives in Florida so I doubt he'd be on the same flight to SLC. Elder Hansen is most likely extending. But there is also a sister missionary, Sister Reshke who will probably be on the flight. She lives in Washington I think.

You asked about how they have all been doing. They have all been doing great and enjoying their missions. Elder Van Nevel was the one without much family support, but he has been a great missionary. I am really jealous of him because he has been serving in Aalborg for nearly 8 months now. He's been one of my best mission friends. Elder Shreeve and Hansen are both doing good too. It was fun seeing them all the other day.

Oh yeah, I have to talk next week in sacrament meeting in Herning, and then the week after that in Silkeborg! Ugh... Oh well.

I'm glad that Jansen is recovering and everyone is doing well. That is awesome that Hannah McKinnon got married. I had no idea that her and McKell had stopped dating. They had been dating as long as I've known them pretty much.

Thanks for the picture of Tani and her hand made skirt. that is way cool! I didn't know she was in to that. Did she take a class in school that taught her that or what?

I have a few pics for you today. The first 3 are from the Fredriksborg castle. The first is me with my favorite painting in the castle. Some kid with a rifle. hahaha. Oh you can also see the Danish Mission Hoodie that I got. The 2nd is a painting from the castle that looked to me like a guy praying about the Book of Mormon. And the 3rd is me and some weird little creature. Then the last one is me and the other missionaries that were at Søren's baptism. That big fella next to me is Elder Horrocks. He makes me feel so tiny. Haha.

Well that's all I can think about for today, so I'll get going. Miss ya! And I hope you have a wonderful week! See ya!!! :D